Religious Studies

We invite current students, faculty, staff, parents, alumni, and community members to join us to share their own experiences of religious diversity and discrimination and offer suggestions for what changes they would like to see to address religious illiteracy and the current climate at the University of Missouri.

The College of Arts and Science is proud to be home to some of the world’s best historians, scientists, artists, authors, performers, innovators, and scholars. The A&S Faculty Fellowship program allows the college to recognize outstanding faculty members by providing a one-time award of $5,000. The fellowship may be renewed if the faculty member is selected again.

The Archaeological Institute of America and the Central Missouri AIA chapter present Kershaw Lecturer Andrea De Giorgi of Florida State University, speaking on "Antioch the Great: An Elusive Metropolis?"

The MU Department of Religious Studies’s Annual Distinguished Lecture in Religion and Public Life will be held April 12 in Memorial Union. Dr. Judith Weisenfeld, Agate Brown and George L. Collord Professor of Religion at Princeton University, will be the 2016 speaker.

The title of the talk is “Apostles of Race: Religion and Black Racial Identity in the Great Migration.”

Most Missourians probably are aware of their state’s Native American heritage, if for no other reason than the plethora of Native American place names such as Miami, Neosho, Osceola, and Tecumseh, to name just a few.

Rabia Gregory, an associate professor of religious studies whose work focuses on late medieval and early modern European religion, says a new academic book series she is co-editing will challenge the perception of Christianity as a unified and European religion before the 16th century.

Dr. Winnifred Fallers Sullivan, professor and chair of the Department of Religious Studies at Indiana University and affiliated professor of Law, Maurer School of Law, will present "Death-Qualifying the Jury, Constituting the People." The presentation will be on April 6 and begin at 7:30 p.m.

WHAT: Kristina Buhrman, assistant professor of religion at Florida State University and a historian of Japanese religions, will present “Invisible Eclipses: Prediction and Ritual in Medieval Japanese Astronomy.”

COLUMBIA, Mo. – Individuals who blame karma for their poor health have more pain and worse physical and mental health, according to a new study from University of Missouri researchers. Targeted interventions to counteract negative spiritual beliefs could help some individuals decrease pain and improve their overall health, the researchers said.

Rabia Gregory, an associate professor of religious studies at MU, says certain things come up in the classroom during the first couple weeks of the semester so often as to be predictable. The department teaches about religion from a secular perspective, but Gregory says that is a perspective that few students are exposed to before leaving home for college.

Nate Hofer, an assistant professor of religious studies, will spend the next year doing what he loves most—researching and writing. Hofer has been granted funding and research space from the John W. Kluge Center in the Library of Congress and from the AnneMarie Schimmel Kolleg, a center affiliated with the University of Bonn in Germany.

The Department of Religious Studies invites you to our next listening session on November 28th at 6:30 p.m. This session will focus on misconceptions and stereotypes. These and future listening sessions will provide a moderated public forum for members of the campus community to share their own experiences of religious diversity and discrimination and offer suggestions for what changes they would like to see to address religious illiteracy.